Pitching & defense sins

ST. PETERSBURG -- Question: What do Red Sox pitchers and Michael Jackson have in common?

Answer: They all wear one glove for no apparent reason.

Yes, it's an old joke and, undoubtedly, a lame one. But that's not the point. Amid the Sox' 10-3 defeat to the Rays last night, Sox pitchers made two errors and should have been charged with a third. This season, Red Sox pitchers have made 17 errors, more than any team in baseball but the Baltimore Orioles and Texas Rangers (tied for first at 18).

Is this the reason the Sox lost? Of course not. But it's an interesting piece of rubble as the Sox' division title hopes looked more and more like fantasy in the juice box known as Tropicana Field.

Indeed, hopes of the Sox repeating as AL East champs now seem like nothing more than pulp fiction.

Of course, the Red Sox' defense has improved by leaps and bounds during the second half, a surge that has coincided with the arrivals of Jason Bay and Jed Lowrie, not necessarily in that order. Still, the fielding mistakes made by their pitchers in this game were downright egregious, from Devern Hansack needlessly botching a popup to Javier Lopez stumbling backward while trying to field an easy chopper.

In Lopez's case, he looked very much like Sylvester Stallone trying to catch a live chicken in "Rocky II."

While leaving the major details of this game to Amalie Benjamin, Adam Kilgore and Nick Cafardo, here's one other curious note from this game: Of the 79 errors the Sox now have committed this season, 38 (or 48.1 percent) have been committed by their pitchers and their shortstops.

If and when the Sox get to the World Series, let's hope that doesn't come back to haunt them the way it did the Detroit Tigers in 2006.